Interesting news in the middle of the night: Apple andHTC have announced they've settled all their patent disputes, bringing an end to all running lawsuits between the two companies. The companies signed a ten-year cross-licensing deal. Considering Apple's legal assault on Android hasn't been going particularly well, this really shouldn't come as a surprise.

I would guess it has less to do with their legal setbacks than it does with a critical patent being declared invalid, while it might just be provisional that usually ends up permanent especially with all the prior art laying around. Apple did nothing more than pi$$ off a whole lot of people who have old technology laying in warehouses or basements just waiting to be shoved under the patent offices nose, I have an old DecMate VT series computer terminal that actually still works as an example and while it has nothing to do with the mobile space it just might have features that could cause Apple problems with their computers, again just an example.

I am sure there are lawyers out looking for all the prior art they can find to take down each of Apples patents they possibly can.

Apple launched a first strike, time to stop before no one is left to build products.